Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

To the unstudied eye. St. Matthew's Gospel can seem a terse narrative, almost a historical document and not the tremendously spiritual (and doctrinal) storehouse that it is. In his fourth and final volume of meditations on Matthew (chapter 26-28), Father Simeon continues to show Matthew's prose to be not so much terse as economical-astoundingly so given its depth. The lay reader can derive great profit form this book. Fact short meditation comments on a verse or two, pointing to some facet of the text not immediately apparent, but rich with meaning. The work is scholarly but eminently approachable. The tone is very much of "taste and see how good the Lord is" and an invitation of "friend, come up higher!" The goal of the book is to help the reader experience the heat of the divine Heart and the light of the divine Word. The author addresses both objective and subjective levels of the World of God-both what it is in itself and what impact in ought to have in our lives. Father Simeon comments of the Greek text, explaining nuances that defy translation. He uses numerous quotes from the Fathers and the Liturgy of the Church to demonstrate the way the Tradition has lived and read the Word of God. His theological reflection vivifies doctrine by seeking its roots in the words and actions of Jesus. He shows that ultimately the text of the Gospel serves only one purpose: to make possible a living encounter with the person of Jesus Christ, an encounter, that is wholly life-transforming. Every effort, therefore, has been made throughout the commentary to show how the presence of Christ in the world has changed the very nature of both history and human experience.